February 16, 2025
NEW YORK, NY February 16, 2025
CONTACT: Audacia Ray, Interim Executive Director | aray@avp.org | 917-334-8618
“The conditions leading to Sam Nordquist’s murder are a horrible combination of factors – growing permissiveness for anti-trans sentiment, lack of support for trans people of color seeking out close relationships, and a cultural indifference to the humanity of LGBTQ people. In a political moment in which the f[...]
Read More
February 14, 2025
Starting in 2021 and through 2023, thanks to community reports to AVP’s hotline, news coverage, and whisper networks in the nightlife communities, AVP documented a series of hook up violence incidents that originated in gay bars in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan.
AVP produced 11 x 14 posters that bar managers hung near bathrooms as part of the Bar Safety Initiative
These incidents became a public concern wh[...]
Read More
January 24, 2025
Following a fatal incident in a Harlem Deli on January 2nd, Jaia Cruz, a 24-year –old transgender woman, pled not guilty to the indictment of second-degree murder on Thursday, January 23rd in a Manhattan courtroom.
The January 2nd incident between Ray Hodge, a 36-year-old postal worker, and Ms. Cruz, was initially reported as an altercation over a place in line that escalated and resulted in the stabbing death of Mr. Hodge. Subsequent testi[...]
Read More
September 17, 2024
AVP is steady and AVP is adapting.
That is the message from AVP’s Board of Directors and Management Team following a recent period of transition for the 40 year-old organization. Over the last several months, AVP has taken on restructuring, leadership changes, budget reductions, and a rescaled strategic plan. These measures ensure that AVP—the largest LGBTQ+-specific anti-violence program in the country reaching more than 11,0[...]
Read More
April 13, 2024
On Friday, NYPD Commissioner Edward Cabán issued a late day press release announcing the two officers who killed Kawaski Trawick in his home nearly five years ago will not be fired for causing his death.
“We are angry and dismayed at the decision to not fire the two officers who entered Kawaski Trawick's home nearly five years ago and killed him within a matter of seconds. This shameful decision by Commissioner Cabán shows a blatant disreg[...]
Read More
February 23, 2024
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs invites organizations, agencies, and programs that support LGBTQ+ survivors of any violence to attend information sessions on NCAVP 2024 focus initiatives, with opportunities for further engagement in collective strategies and action.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs has been a consortium of organizations dedicated to addressing violence of all types against LGBTQ+ and HIV-affect[...]
Read More
February 20, 2024
Dear Members of the AVP and LGBTQ+ Communities,
Today, we share with you the news that AVP’s Executive Director, Beverly Tillery will be stepping down after eight years of dedication and service to survivors of violence, and the greater LGBTQ+ community. Her last day at the organization will be July 31, 2024. We are excited to celebrate Bev’s leadership and AVP’s accomplishments during her tenure and to begin the search for the next dynami[...]
Read More
December 21, 2023
The two bills passed by the New York City Council aim to increase oversight over NYPD by requiring record-keeping for police stops and prevent senseless deaths at Rikers Island by limiting the use of solitary confinement.
The ban on Solitary Confinement in city jails is the result of years of activism by a coalition of family and loved ones, organizations and stakeholders including AVP, which was loud in its advocacy for justice in t[...]
Read More
October 17, 2023
Cameron Esposito, Qween Jean and Our Lady J are trailblazers and changemakers for LGBTQ+ community who will be honored this year at AVP’s Courage Awards in New York.
(New York) The New York City Anti-Violence Project, the nation’s largest anti-violence organization dedicated to LGBTQ+ survivors of violence, is proud to announce this year’s honorees for its annual Courage Awards celebration. The 2023 Courage Awards will be held on[...]
Read More
September 25, 2023
New York, New York - Four months after the disciplinary trial against Officers Brendan Thompson and Herbert Davis for the 2019 killing of Kawaski Trawick, the NYPD deputy commissioner who oversaw the trial recommended that the charges against the two officers be dismissed. Trawick, a 32-year-old Black gay man, was cooking in his own Bronx apartment when officers broke the chain on his door, illegally entered his apartment, and then tased and sh[...]
Read More
August 4, 2023
The New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP) and our communities are in a compounded state of grief and mourning today. Over the past several days our communities have laid bare their pain and trauma for the world to see in response to the death of O’Shae Sibley. We have witnessed an outpouring of emotion, questions, demands, and truths about the state of our world.
This arrest does not acknowledge the underlying issues of violence that our[...]
Read More
August 1, 2023
The New York City Anti-Violence Project is calling on New Yorkers to support LGBTQ+ people and put safety at the top of their minds, as at least 45 anti-LGBTQ+ incidents, including at least three homicides, have been tracked or reported across the city so far in 2023.
Most recently, a 28-year-old man, O’Shae Sibley was harassed and stabbed in Midwood after he and his friends were harassed for voguing and dancing in public and later died from[...]
Read More
